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Close to London, with top schools and royal neighbours — leafy Windsor is flying high
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle want it to be the ‘people’s wedding’. Which might be overstating matters when the venue for your nuptials is the Queen’s private chapel at Windsor castle, but we get the point.
What’s certain is that the royal wedding on May 19 will put Windsor centre stage. But this pretty town just 20 miles west of central London already attracts interest. it is now one of the few hotspots in Britain’s sluggish housing market.
research by estate agency countrywide says house prices in Windsor have risen 53 per cent over the past ten years — more than the rest of the South-east, which has seen increases of 37 per cent.
The Land registry says a typical home in Windsor is now a hefty £574,860 compared to £370,840 in South-east england.
Those who know Windsor will not be surprised. it’s already one of the country’s best-preserved towns, with many streets designated as conservation areas. The centre has high- end arcades and stores plus a flourishing bar and restaurant scene. Windsor is also well-located for commuters, and good for buy-to-let investors.
Many homes are listed and in crescents and terraces, so offer limited scope for extension.
relatively few large houses with family gardens in the best addresses (such as clarence crescent) go on sale, and fetch premium prices when they do. There are executive homes in clusters on the edge of the town, but new properties are few because of the constraints of the area.
These include the river Thames running through the centre, Windsor Great Park plus stretches of Green Belt.
‘Windsor appeals to a range of buyers, but the majority are commuters migrating out of London,’ says nick Wooldridge, of Stacks Property Search.
‘The market is particularly strong for homes between £700,000 and £900,000,’ according to emma Smith, of Strutt & Parker, although she suggests that stamp duty is making the sale of homes over £1million more difficult.
Unsurprisingly many of those moving in are young families, wanting to be on hand for the highly-regarded local private and state schools. Top schools include St George’s (within the castle gates), Brigidine and Upton House in Windsor, St Mary’s and Papplewick in nearby Ascot and, of course, eton college, alma mater of Prince Harry himself.
Heathrow is 20 minutes away by car while two Windsor rail stations have services taking commuters to London’s Paddington and Waterloo terminuses within 35 minutes. From late next year, the nearby Maidenhead station will have the new crossrail link, making the city even more accessible. Homes closest to the stations attract the highest premiums. ‘£1.5 million will buy a period, terrace townhouse with four bedrooms within walking distance to the station,’ says charles elsmore-Wickens from Savills. Many buyers look just outside Windsor to the villages, including Bray — home to Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck restaurant — as well as englefield Green. ‘The village of Datchet is a popular choice. it has its own train station going directly into Waterloo and with £1.5 million you can buy a detached fivebedroom house with a big garden and parking,’ says elsmore-Wickens. Tourists visit Windsor year- round. in 2016 there were 7.8 million day trips to the town, creating traffic jams close to Legoland and the racecourse. Aircraft noise from Heathrow is ever- present. But for Windsor residents, the upsides more than make up for such irritations.
THeY don’t slum it with sharing platters and bowl food at Buckingham Palace. While the Queen might start her day with corn flakes served from a Tupperware box, serious dining is done in style when a head of state comes to town.
State Banquets call for the silver gilt Grand Service commissioned by George IV in 1806 and numbering a whopping 4,000 items, from 288 dinner plates to 58 decorative dessert stands, salt sellers to ice pails and a silver bread basket in the shape of a shell. The table is set with steamed linen and each piece of cutlery precisely placed by specially trained palace staff.
Few among us can quite manage that, but it seems we are beginning to follow Her Majesty’s lead. Because that wedding list staple, the dinner service, is back in fashion.
Interior designer William Yeoward says brides are, once again, snapping up whole sets — and they ‘love gold’. We’re tired of dreary old white and beginning to embrace more flamboyant pieces. So dust off your crockery and start celebrating fine dining.
Dinner services are also back in the spotlight thanks to a large forthcoming sale — The Collection of Peggy and David rockefeller which will be up for auction this May in new York.
It’s expected to be the most lucrative sale of its kind in history — estimated to raise $500 million (£358 million), all of which will go to charity.
Up for grabs will be 67 dinner sets including a 42-piece Spode porcelain cafe- au- lait- ground part dessert service (estimate $10,000 to $15,000, or £7,000 to £10,750) from the American philanthropist’s family collection.
The lots demonstrate the rockefellers’ love of travel — there are sets from Vienna, Paris, China — and their interest in history. One of the star turns, with an estimate of $ 150,000 to $ 250,000 (£ 107,530 to £ 179,218), is a Sevres porcelain ‘ Marly rouge’ part dessert service made for napoleon I dating from 1807-1809. Quite a talking point, come pudding.
David rockefeller himself noted that if ever the conversation lagged, you could always talk about the plates. Good news for the socially awkward.
According to Christie’s, such sales do extremely well. But are they also sounding the dinner bell for minimalism and casual suppers?
Looking at the High Street — perhaps so. Across the board, collections reflect a renewed interest in elaborate dinnerware.
Lifestyle brand Amara says their most popular sets are by Versace, roberto Cavalli and Jars — none of which is known for its understated approach. Versace’s plates are, naturally, lavished with gold (from £28, amara.com). Cavalli’s bread plates are leopard print (£166 for a set of six) and Jars’s dessert plates come in orange, cherry, indigo and black (£23).
At John Lewis, meanwhile, sales of dinner sets are up.
‘Boxed sets are among our best- sellers when it comes to crockery, with sales of the traditional 12 or 16- piece dinner sets increasing in the past six months. Denby is a particular favourite,’ says elaine Hooper, a John Lewis Tabletop Buyer.
Denby Halo dinnerware, with its striking black border and glossy speckled bowls, is dramatic but still homely (£146 for 12 pieces,
johnlewis. com) while royal Doulton’ s 1815 Dinnerware set in Aqua is in a breezy peppermint (£155 for 16 pieces).
Patterned pieces are also increasingly popular, as are metallic flourishes.
At Zara Home, plates are layered on chargers in textured gold or with silver and gold rims. You need a big table to pull all that off but it will glint beautifully in candlelight (gold glass charger plate £15.99, zara home.com).
PORCELAIN teacups and saucers by H&M are being sold for spring in pale pink, yellow and dusky green with gold handles (£6.99 per teacup, hm.com). And even soup tureens are back in fashion — and look deliciously tempting. Portuguese company Bordallo Pinheiro has a cheerful range including a pumpkin, tomato and cabbage ( priced from £49.95, libertylondon.com). Is there still a strong trend for mix and matching? According to Jody Wilkie, Christie’s co-chairman of Decorative Arts, even the rockefellers would have used different sets over the course of a meal, though not on the table all at once. And what about the washing up? Well, the poor staff at Buckingham Palace have to do most of it by hand, but happily these days, most dinnerware is dishwasher proof.